As your “Disposable workers of the oil and gas
fields” story says, no death should be overlooked or treated
as unimportant.
However, in comparison to the 89 deaths
that occurred in the drilling industry from 2000 to 2006 in the
states of Colorado, Utah, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, and North
Dakota, there were approximately 10,600 deaths as a result of
traffic accidents — more than 100 times the rate for
drilling-related fatalities!
We continue to slaughter
anywhere from 25,000 to more than 40,000 people annually on our
highways nationwide, and my feeling is that everyone (except the
survivors) pretty much yawns when this astounding number is
reported. This is a strange paradox, in view of the frenzy we get
in when very low numbers of deaths occur from something
statistically irrelevant but bizarre or unusual. I note here the
bird flu, hantavirus and West Nile fever, none of which have killed
very many people in the U.S. at all, but all of which have
received, and continue to receive, large amounts of commentary and
analysis in the media.
You may say that traffic
fatalities are so widely dispersed and have so many causes under a
variety of conditions that preventative action is extremely
difficult, while in the case of drilling fatalities, something more
direct can have an immediate impact. I would agree with that, but I
would still assert that we have come to live with the enormous cost
of traffic deaths without getting appropriately angry and
responsive.
Michael Sharpe
Grand
Junction, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Death on the road.
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